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The NASA’s Armstrong Flight Research Center has taken delivery of the first of
three F/A-18B Hornet jets it expects to receive from the U.S. Navy. This will be
the largest influx of “new” aircraft the center has seen in nearly a decade and
could be a major boon to its research efforts, including studies related to
quieter supersonic travel and why U.S. military pilots might suffer from
dangerous hypoxia-like symptoms.
The two-seat F/A-18B arrived at Armstrong, which is situated within Edwards Air
Force Base in California, after flying from Naval Air Station Patuxent River in
Maryland on Nov. 13, 2018. High winds forced the aircraft to make an overnight
stop at Kirtland Air Force Base in New Mexico. NASA did not say what unit the
aircraft had previously belonged to, but Pax River is home to the U.S. Naval
Test Pilots School and various research and development squadrons.
NASA is set to get another B-model Hornet from Pax River before the end of 2018.
A third example will come from Naval Air Station Joint Reserve Base Fort Worth
in Texas in 2019. The last time Armstrong took possession of three aircraft in a
similarly short amount of time, was when the center took delivery of three
ex-U.S. Air Force F-15D Eagles in 2010.
In March 2018, the Navy disclosed that it had approved plans to begin retiring
its F/A-18A-D model Hornets, also known collectively as Legacy Hornets. The U.S.
Marine Corps will receive a significant number of the F/A-18C/Ds as a result,
but the F/A-18A/B types are becoming available for other uses, including by
NASA. The Navy does expect to continue flying at least some of the older Hornets
operationally itself through 2026 and for non-combat support missions, such as
in the role of aggressors, for some time after that, as well.
“Although the aircraft Armstrong is receiving are nearing the end of their
service life for the Navy, some of the aircraft could have extended use for the
center,” Tim Krall, a flight operations engineer at Armstrong said in an
official NASA press release. “There are fewer flight hours on research and
mission support aircraft than the frequent flight rates required for the
military.”
The “newish” Hornets could also have much more life left in them for these types
of limited research missions as compared to the NASA’s existing three F/A-18s,
which include two single-seat A models and a lone B model. Armstrong received
these from the Navy between 1984 and 1991, according to an official fact sheet.
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